Thursday, October 21, 2010

Befouled Tim

Starting pitcher:
JC Parsons

Tim Lincecum pitched well enough to win tonight, if....wait for it....everything else went perfectly. Yeah well, that sure didn't happen. Shit happened; Tim and the Giants lost 4-2 and the NLCS is going back to Philly.

First Tim; then the shit. Tim threw 6 freakishly good innings and one nightmare frame. His overall numbers are quite solid and out pace Halladay (game scores: Freak 65 Doc 55)...umm, except for the "W."

7 innings 4 hits (all singles) 2 earned runs 1 walk 7 strike outs

His changeup (which everybody will be calling a split finger next year) seemed especially wicked and Tim used it well. Ask Ryan Howard; he struck out three times and saw almost all "change/splits." Tim really only threw a couple bad pitches: a worthless slider? that hit Ruiz and a very hittable fastball to Polanco that he drilled for an RBI single (the game winner as it turned out). Needless to say, both were in the Inning From Hell, the third. Which bring us to the shit...

After a bloop hit by Ibanez and the Ruiz HBP, things started to get ugly. In the box score summary it says, " R Halladay sacrificed to catcher, R Ibanez to third, C Ruiz to second. " Doesn't really do it justice does it? Hard to believe the ump blew such a easy call, but the painful part was watching the graceless Sandoval flail helplessly for the bag. Damn, that should have been a double play...good hustle by Ibanez, but the Panda's lack of mobility really cost us there. I'm pretty sure it was my screaming at the television from 400 hundred miles away that got him off his butt to throw out the befuddled Halladay. Just a good old fashioned 2-5-3 sacrifice bunt. A three run rally sparked by a foul ball. Shit. Then, the Big Shit: Aubrey Huff's horrendous error that brought both runners in and moved the hitter to second (which was huge as it turned out). It seems quite possible that Huff had a play at the plate if he handled the hot smash cleanly. Sigh, that is a play that I wish I had seen. Oh well, maybe we will never have to think of that third inning again. Like when we lock it up this weekend. Oh please, don't let me ever think of that third inning again.

I suppose you think I'm going to mention all the failed scoring opportunities (they started in the first!) as part of my "shit list." Hell no. That ain't shit, that's how we roll. If you aren't used to it by now, I doubt you will be in the couple weeks we have left.

8 comments:

Anonymous
said...

So Sandoval goes from playing in for a bunt, to not being on the bag during a foul ball, one that even Halladay did not run on. Everybody except the ump and Ibanez thought that ball was foul. Replay showed that it was way foul. The bad luck lightning rod for this game was Huff not Sandoval. He missed a hard smash that cost us, but he also was up several times with men on base, and he either hit the ball hard for an out (twice) or weakly grounded out (once), in those situations. It was a bad luck snake bitten night. Now lets hope the giants go into philly and win an easy game 6, with no drama. Rollins has played an excellent shortstop, probably robbing the giants of several hits the last two games.

On the bunt play; the play is at third and with a bunt that goes one foot and is obviously the catcher's play, the thirdbaseman BETTER be on the bag. If Pablo can't cover the base on that play then there was NO CHANCE to get the force. Considering that if executed correctly that was a double play instead of a perfect sacrifice, I would say that was a crucial failure.

I agree that the third baseman has to get back and cover the bag--that's just part of the job description. Huff may not have had a play at the plate, he was moving to his right and being left-handed he would have had to turn his body to throw home. Regardless, he really needed to at least knock the ball down in that situation. A lot of little failures last night added up. The Giants looked good against Halladay but couldn't get a big hit. The Phils bullpen was awesome. The Giants got a taste of their own medicine, really. The Phils played Giants-ball to keep the series alive. You had to figure the defending champs would make it tough.

You also have to feel good about the Giants chances this weekend. A split is all that's needed and with two good pitchers going that ought to be do-able. Of course it will be 2-1 in the 9th with the bases loaded and Brian Wilson striking out the side and not the 8-3 blow-out we all hope for.

Anyway, bottom line ... you don't give away runs with someone like Halladay on the mound & get away with it. He wasn't at his best, but it didn't matter.

I sensed a huge momentum shift (both against the Giants & against Ross individually), when Ross got thrown out trying to tag on that fly ball. Ross then whiffed helplessly in his next 2 at-bats. I think that we may have to get to the World Series & win it without much more from him. Now, given that we won the division without that much help from him, we should still be able to gut this out.

In a respectful way, I am really sick of Werth & Ruiz. They are very good players who seem to be in the middle of everything good that happens for the Phillies. This gets lost a bit in the media frenzy about Utley & Howard &, to a lesser extent, Victorino.

Someone new needs to emerge for us as the difference-maker (aside from J. Sanchez, of course). My gut tells me that it will be Huff - he has something to make up for now. Burrell would be a good candidate, too.

This is BroBob, my sign-in is also FUBAR:The bright side:Torres and FSanchez back at the top of the order did well, with 2 hits apiece. At times FSanchez just oozes VSC.Javier Lopez continues to be outstanding. Big bad lefty sluggers, first Hayward, now Howard have been rendered impotent. The rest of the staff has handled these men well also, but Lopez embarrasses them.My prediction: in one of the games in Philly, Sandoval will hit for the cycle and we will win. After that get ready to read way too many stories about Benjie Molina.

Hey M.C., I'm still here. Sorry, I've been a little preoccupied. I've been drawing this lady for a few days now (no baseball players yet, sorry) and yeah. Let me tell you, the hardest part of the head to draw (at least for me, right now) is the hair. And this young lady happens to have thick, wavy, black hair. She's so much to deal with, but, I think she's worth it.

Last night's game was the worst game Aubrey Huff ever had in a Giants uniform. He can only improve from that "performance" yesterday. It's all in Johnny's hands now. Go Giants!

Sandoval is just a continuing disaster in the field. Just the most basic of bunt plays for a 3B - charge the bunt and then get back to the bag for the throw. Not one or two steps away. All the way to the base before you turn around. If you can't execute this play, you have no business on the field.

He manages to cock-up at least one play every game, and if he's not OPS'ing 1.200, he's a liability this team cannot overcome.